Pop Culture . . . whatever

Ryan O’Neal hits on daughter Tatum at Farrah Fawcett’s funeral

by Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger

Monday August 03, 2009, 10:02 AM

Ryan O’Neal, reputedly so brokenhearted over longtime love Farrah Fawcett’s death from cancer, didn’t recognize estranged daughter Tatum and hit on her at Fawcett’s funeral last month. What’s even more shocking? He admitted it.

“I had just put the casket in the hearse and I was watching it drive away when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me,” Ryan says in the September issue of Vanity Fair. “I said to her, ‘You have a drink on you? You have a car?’ She said, ‘Daddy, it’s me — Tatum!’ I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it’s my daughter. It’s so sick.”

What’s even more shocking? Tatum O’Neal laughs it off. “That’s our relationship in a nutshell,” she says. “You make of it what you will. It had been a few years since we’d seen each other, and he was always a ladies’ man, a bon vivant.”

Though the two starred together in “Paper Moon” when Tatum was a kid, they became estranged when she was a teenager and he moved in with Fawcett, though Tatum says she doesn’t blame Fawcett for their estrangement.she says. (“I truly thought Farrah was inspirational and beautiful and kind.”)

They’ve had a rough relationship ever since then: Her 2004 memoir, “A Paper Life,” in which she describes her father as abusive and neglectful, didn’t help matters any, and she also sided with her brother Griffin after Griffin and his father fought at Ryan O’Neal’s Malibu home in 2007. Ryan O’Neal was arrested in the incident, but charges were later dropped.

Griffin O’Neal, who was reportedly banned from Fawcett’s funeral is still nursing a grudge; he tells Vanity Fair that his father only stuck by Fawcett during her illness because he wanted a stake in her will. “It was so disgustingly transparent as soon as she found out she was terminal. I consider him a vulture presiding over a carcass.”

Here are some HIGHlights:

On making advances toward his estranged daughter, Tatum, after funeral of longtime love, Farrah Fawcett:
“I had just put the casket in the hearse and was watching it drive away when a beautiful blond woman comes up and embraces me. I said to her, ‘You have a drink on you? You have a car?’ She said, ‘Daddy, it’s me — Tatum! I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it’s my daughter. It’s so sick.”

Tatum’s response:
“That’s our relationship in a nutshell . . . You make of it what you will. It had been a few years since we’d seen each othe. And he was always a ladies’ man, a bon vivant.

If he’s sorry he had children:
“A couple of them I would take back. I don’t think I was supposed to be a father. Just look around at my work — they’re either in jail or they should be. I’m not in touch with them now. And I’ve never been happier.”

On Tatum:
“She wrote a book — bitch! How dare she throw our laundry in the street for money!”

Is that anything like “throwing your laundry in the street” for Vanity Fair?!

On son, Griffin:
“I hate him!”

Griffin’s response:
My father is a “narcissistic psychopath” who tried to make money off Farrah’s death. “All those crocodile tears! I consider him a vulture presiding over a carcass. My dad’s only goal was to make sure he would be in the will. It was so disgustingly transparent as soon as he found out she was terminal . . . Ryan thought he was going to get everything.”

On Farrah:
“I wish I could do it over with [her]. I would have been much kinder, more understanding, more mature. I’d lose some of the savagery.”